Rafa Nadal Returns for 10th Anniversary of Academy
Rafa Nadal is coming back to centre court. Not for a title, not for ranking points, but for something far more personal.
On Saturday, 3 October, the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor will launch its 10th Anniversary celebrations with an afternoon of exhibition tennis, headlined by the 22-time Grand Slam champion himself. From 5:00 pm, Nadal will step back into the arena alongside some of the biggest names in the sport, sharing the court with rivals and friends who have shaped the story of his career.
It will be no ordinary hit-and-giggle. This will be the first time Nadal plays in front of a crowd since he retired from professional tennis in November 2024 at the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga. The setting could hardly be more symbolic: not a grand stadium in a major capital, but his own Academy in Manacor, the project that has quietly become the backbone of his legacy.
Details of the participating players and ticket information will be released in the coming days, with capacity at the Academy’s Centre Court ensuring that seats will be at a premium. Those who cannot make it to Mallorca will still have a front-row view: the Rafa Nadal Academy Slam, as the event has been titled, will be broadcast live on Movistar Plus, which plans extensive coverage of Nadal’s on-court return.
The exhibition will do more than celebrate a milestone. It will shine a light on how far the Academy has come since it opened in 2016, built on the methodology, experience and values that defined Nadal’s career: hard work, respect, and an obsession with self-improvement.
That philosophy has produced tangible results. Academy players have collected 14 Junior Grand Slam titles – seven in singles and seven in doubles – and five of them have climbed to Junior World No. 1. The production line is no longer a promise; it is a reality. Just three weeks ago, seven players from the Academy were simultaneously ranked inside the Top 100 of the ATP and WTA rankings. Among them is Alex Eala, one of the most eye-catching young talents on the circuit, whose rise is resonating well beyond junior tennis.
What began as a single base in Mallorca has grown into a global network. Over the past decade, the Academy’s DNA has travelled far beyond Manacor, with eight centres now operating around the world: Manacor, Costa Mujeres, Greece, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Marbella, Egypt and Punta Cana. Each site carries the same idea – that success in sport must go hand in hand with education and personal growth.
The 10th Anniversary, then, is not just about looking back at trophies on a wall or names on a ranking list. It is about the evolution of a project that aims to shape people as much as players, using Nadal’s career as a blueprint.
On 3 October, that blueprint returns to the baseline. The crowd in Manacor will watch Nadal strike the ball again at his Academy, on the court where the next generation trains under his shadow. For them, and for him, it will be a reminder: his playing days may be over, but his influence is still very much in play.
